The Quality Inn in Romeoville, which received a $4.1 million loan from HomeStar Bank.

The SBA lending division of HomeStar Bank, after building a highly experienced and professional SBA lending team, has completed its first full year of operations as the 5th largest SBA lender in the State of Illinois for the fiscal year ended 2018.

During its first full year, HomeStar Bank secured $30,154,000 in loan approvals in Illinois, according to Gabe Beukinga, president of the bank’s SBA lending group, who announced the results.

“We are very excited about the achievements of the newly established SBA lending division,” said William Smith, CEO, HomeStar Bank. “We have great expectations for this division; the results we’ve seen in the first full year of operations reinforce our commitment to bring the best of class products and services to clients to help them grow, to allow them to maximize their rewards for their hard work.”

Overall, the Homestar division has completed transactions on behalf of women and minority owned as well as conventional businesses. These companies include restaurants, hotels, schools, professional service providers and import/export firms, among others. The loans provided by HomeStar have been or are being used for a variety of capital needs such as real estate acquisition and property redevelopment to inventory purchase and debt refinancing.

“One of the great reasons for our success is our ongoing commitment to the SBA’s public policy initiatives which emphasize extending credit to woman, minority and veteran-owned businesses,” Beukinga said. “It’s rewarding to help these firms build and realize their dreams and business plans.”

Of the $30.15 million in loan approvals, women and minority businesses accounted for more than $19.8 million or approximately 66 percent of the total. The three largest loans to women and minority owned businesses included a $5 million loan to construct a new franchise day school in Carol Stream; a $4.1 million loan for a hotel in Romeoville and a $2.96 million loan to establish a day care for dogs in Naperville.

The HomeStar executive team has decades of experience and has closed over $1 billion in SBA loans. Beukinga, with 12 years of financial and SBA lending experience, has been a top national SBA lender for most of his career. Beukinga started the SBA lending division at HomeStar Bank last September.